Pettigrew's Trial
by Sosha Sarah
Summary: After Peter Pettigrew dies, he is called before three friends that he has betrayed to explain his actions.


**A/N: So, I'm working on another fic right now, but it's nowhere near being ready to be posted (something that I thought would be at most a week project has turned into almost 2 months so far), and I wanted to post something, so I decided to just go with this idea that I had thought of once and then discarded. This did not come out at all how I thought it would, but that's the way life goes sometimes.**

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_Peter Pettigrew, you have been called before this tribunal of friends who have died to explain your betrayal. What say you?_

Peter Pettigrew, who had been staring at his feet ever since his arrival in what he could only assume was hell, looked up to see the source of what sounded like a disembodied voice. He did not see the source of the voice, but instead saw three of his former best friends sitting before him.

"Lily . . . James . . . Sirius . . . I am so sorry," Peter said.

"Apologies are not appropriate here," Lily replied. "The only thing we want to hear is why. Why did you betray us? Why did you not care that we would die?"

"I cared, but I had no choice!" Peter insisted.

"You had a choice: between light and dark," James replied. "We all choose the light. Why did you choose dark?"

"I had to!" Peter said, scared. "Death Eaters approached me . . . I couldn't say no! He was gaining more and more power every day, how could I resist him? If I had said no to the Death Eaters, if I had refused to join, I would have been dead within days. If I had said no to the Death Eaters, nobody could protect me from him!"

"We could have," James replied, anger beginning to seep into his voice. "Dumbledore could have. If you had come to us, told us or Dumbledore that Death Eaters had approached you or had threatened you, we would have taken you into hiding with us. We would have done our best to protect you. I understand not wanting to die, but we would have died to protect you, as we thought you would do for us. We would never have betrayed you. How could you betray us? How could it be so easy for you?"

"It wasn't easy," Peter replied. "I regretted the decision every day after I made it, but I couldn't turn back. I couldn't say no. I couldn't refuse him; I didn't have the courage. I never belonged in Gryffindor. But I tried to make good choices, even when I was forced to do his bidding. I died sparing your son's life. Can you not forgive my sins because of that?"

"You showed no affection or love for Harry," Lily said. "You spared him because he saved you, not because you cared for him in any way. He saved you from death at the hands of two of the friends that you betrayed, not out of any regard for you, but because he did not want them to become murderers. And you spared him because you owed him your life, not because you wanted him to live."

"I've suffered," Peter said, his voice starting to go hoarse. "I spent 13 years as a rat, and then had to do Voldemort's bidding for years. Isn't that enough? Must I suffer here to, at the hands of my closest friends?"

"We have no wish to make you suffer," Sirius said, looking at Peter for the first time since he had begun speaking. "We just wish to know the answer to our questions. We want to know why we had to die. Why Harry had to grow up isolated and alone. Why you couldn't trust and confide in your closest friends. Why, Peter?"

Peter looked at his shoes one more time, and decided to just tell the truth. These were three of his oldest friends, three people who had trusted him with their lives. If anyone deserved to know the truth, it was these three people who had fought for him for so many years. "Because it was easier than fighting," Peter replied. "I didn't want to be involved in a prolonged fight. I wanted to be on the winning side, and it looks like that's how things have worked out."

"For now," James replied. "All temporary victories are fleeting. Only time will tell. Every man meets his end eventually."

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**Thanks for reading! Feel free to review - let me know if you liked it, hated it, thought it was too short, thought it was too long . . . or just let me know what color socks you're wearing, doesn't matter much to me**


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